Substandard construction at Trump Soho led to fatal collapse - city sources

Wooden supports bracing the top floors of Donald Trump's SoHo condo tower failed to meet standards and broke while concrete was being poured - leading to Monday's fatal collapse, city sources said Tuesday.

Forensic engineers for the city Buildings Department determined the wooden forms, built to hold concrete until it hardens, did not meet "industry standards," the sources said.

Advertisement

The city halted all work at the Spring St. tower as the probe moves forward. The sources said other problems at the building also may have contributed to the partial collapse.

The findings emerged Tuesday as the Daily News obtained photos of the work site snapped just before the top two floors collapsed about 2 p.m. Monday.

High above Manhattan, construction worker Yurly Vanchytsky is seen pausing to relax and take a swig of water. All around him his fellow hardhats are smoothing out freshly poured cement on the top floor.

Another worker, Francesco Palizzotto - photographed operating a cement mixer with the blue sky behind him - tumbled into a safety net. Pictures taken after the collapse show him tangled in the net with thousands of pounds of concrete on top of him.

"You would never think anything like that was about to happen," the photographer said, asking that he not be identified.

City data show high-rise accidents have skyrocketed over the past two years, shooting from 23 to 42 incidents. Concrete firms causing material to fall from high-rises under construction were responsible for 68% of the accidents last year, also an increase from the previous year, a city source said.

Inspectors working for the city and officials from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were examining the tower at 246 Spring St. yesterday as laborers wrapped sections of the building in protective netting.

Investigators were interviewing workers with Bovis Lend Lease, the main contractor, and subcontractor Difama Concrete. The companies and Trump could not be reached for comment.

"They will not be allowed to go back to work until they demonstrate to us what they will do to keep this site safe," Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said.

Advertisement

Vanchytsky, 53, and Palizzotto, 46, worked for Difama, which had been linked to the Luchese crime family through a company official.

The official, Joseph Fama, was sentenced to 50 months in prison for racketeering and extortion in 2004, records show. In 2005, Fama's lawyer asked the judge who sentenced him to postpone the imprisonment because of his role as a "key employee/manager" of Difama Concrete.

Two years passed before construction at the Trump project began last May. Since then, Difama and Bovis amassed 11 safety violations from the city.

Four buildings adjacent to the tower remained partially evacuated yesterday.

Palizzotto's relatives were holding vigil at his bedside in St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan yesterday. His best friend, Vito Valsamo, said the two had grown up together in Palermo, Italy, where they were painters.

"I don't know why he moved to construction," Valsamo said. "I guess he wanted a better job with insurance. He was always a hard worker."

At Vanchytsky's home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, relatives dressed all in black declined to comment.

"They're in shock, we're all in shock," said Vanchytsky's landlord, Zeeshan Tambra, 40. "He was a hard worker and a good man. He left home every morning at 5."

She said Vanchytsky immigrated to New York from Ukraine with his wife, Natalia, and a son and daughter about eight years ago. Tambra said she was with Vanchytsky's wife when she learned her husband had been killed.

"Natalia said, 'My daughter called. The building where he worked collapsed,'" Tambra recalled. "And then the police came and told her. She closed the door and started crying."